


A sky on fire

by People_from_mars



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Family, Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-20 01:28:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20219521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/People_from_mars/pseuds/People_from_mars
Summary: Sirius Black finds himself outside the Potters home on the 31 October 1981. He remembers an easier life, when the sky was lit with another kind of hot, burning fire.





	A sky on fire

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This little story just popped into my head and I wrote it down (can you believe that)! It would make me super happy if you found the time to leave a comment. Anyways… please enjoy ’A sky on fire’  
Disclaimer: No, my name is not J.K Rowling

The sky was on fire. Brickdust from the remnants of the once beautiful house swirled through the air and made his eyes water. Sirius walked through the Potters now destroyed garden, the same one where they’d celebrated Harry's first birthday only a few months back. Everyone had seemed happy, a perfect family in the middle of the war. Something good in the bad world. Just Lily, Harry, Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs. 

He kicked away a broken pot that layed in his path to the front door, soggy black soil spilled out of it. Lily always spoke of the flowers she would plant when the war ended- if the war ended. He guessed that it didn’t matter anymore. A silent tear made its way down his cheek. Sirius took a deep breath and entered the house. 

He staggered forward through the debris to find his friends. Here and there he could see an item that he recognized; a snuggly dragon toy that he and Remus had gotten for Harry when he was born; one of James’s mothers old porcelain plates that she’d given to him for his nineteenth birthday; Lily’s Beatles vinyls that had been listened to so much that you couldn’t play them anymore. 

He found James first. Lying on his back on the livingroom floor. Sirius could’ve mistaken him for being asleep if it weren't for his open brown eyes, they’d lost their warm glint. James’s hair was ruffled up -just how he liked it to be- and he was wearing one of his old Gryffindor sweatshirts, probably to keep away the late October cold. Forcing himself to look away from the dead body of his best friend, not yet cold, Sirius continued through the house looking for Lily and Harry.

In the stairs to the second floor he found the Potters cat. It had never liked Sirius- him being an animagus dog after all- and therefore it hissed at him when he tried to approach it. More than two years earlier James had gotten home one evening and to his surprise found the cat sleeping on his and Lilys bed. The fluffy red beast with a unfortunate flat face had been living on the streets outside St.Mungos where Lily worked, and she’d taken pity upon it. Just as Sirius was going to try and pick it up he heard a loud wailing from upstairs. Forgetting all about the cat he ran as fast as he could, following the sound.

He found Harry crying in the nursery, Lily lying dead on the floor before him. Carefully he picked up Harry who seemed scared but not hurt except for a wound on his forehead shaped like a lightning bolt. Sirius wondered how much he understood of things that’d happened. He shushed the baby in his arms and held him close, thanking whatever higher power that’d spared Harry. 

Sirius made his way out of the destroyed house, Harry still in his arms, crying. On the dark sidewalk waited Rubeus Hagrid to take Harry to Dumbledore, and Sirius let him. After watching them depart on his motorcycle (that James had jokingly names Elvendork) Sirius realised he had nothing to lose anymore. And it hurt. Still, there was something about the moment reminded him of just a few years earlier. When life had been easy and carefree. Just another late autumn night when the sky was on fire. 

They sat by the great lake, sharing a bottle of firewhiskey with the other seventh year Gryffindors. Most of them were tipsy, especially since he and James had spiked the Halloween party’s punch earlier that evening. The sky lightened up every few second with fireworks of all kinds of shapes and colors. Drunk on alcohol and happiness they danced and laughed. Eventually they settled down by the fire and told stories. 

It really didn’t matter what the stories were about, they were happy and content anyway. Some told silly stories, about how they broke their little toe, or how they accidentally almost made out with Filch. Some told scary stories, about ghosts in basements and crying little children in the forest at night. Some told mysterious stories, like one about a well that could make your deepest wish come true. Sirius had been surrounded by his friends and he’d been happy. The air had tasted sweet but the warm feeling in his chest had been sweeter.

That sky had been on fire. Just like the one tonight. Swiftly Sirius turned his back to the remains of the Potters house and quickly walked down the street with only one goal in mind. To find the traitor. Who’d destroyed one of the most beautiful things that Sirius had ever experienced; the friendship between four brothers.


End file.
